7 Questions Related to Criminal Records Check

The crime rate in India and the fake candidate profiles make the criminal record check a comprehensive step before the hiring of a candidate. It unveils the criminal history of a candidate. Here in India, the criminal record check is conducted with the help of extensive litigation searches of court records involving civil or criminal cases. These include:

1. Criminal Suit – Magistrate Court
2. Criminal Suit District Court
3. Criminal Suit State Court
4. District Civil Courts & Tribunals
5. District Court
6. High Courts
7. Magistrate Court
8. State Courts
9. Supreme Court
But there are specific questions that need to be asked before going for a criminal record check. These are as follows:
Why do you want to conduct a criminal record check?
Before doing a criminal record check of any individual, the organization needs to ask this question that why do they want to conduct a criminal record check? With the growing number of crimes and uncertainty around the people, a criminal record check gives leverage to the organization to hire a candidate with a clean past, without any criminal history. The examination also includes litigating database searches. This check verifies if any public database such as civil litigation database, criminal databases and regulatory compliance database has a candidate’s name.
Who should we conduct Criminal Records Check on?
After you have got to know the motive of the criminal record check, it should be ascertain that on who should you conduct the criminal record check. Criminal Records Check should be conducted on all the possible candidates and every new employee to ensure the safety of the workplace because a single element of discrepancy can impact the entire safety, motivation, and brand reputation. And it should be done with sheer diligence.
3. Are there laws pertaining to criminal records check?
There is no particular law relating to a criminal record check India. Still, the Indian Contract Act, Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Acts of 2000 and 2005 are considered as benchmarks for conducting criminal records check. In addition to this, there is a law for the welfare of the candidate. Credit Information Companies (Regulation) Act, 2005 can penalize companies for not keeping the personal data collected on employees confidential.
4. What databases are available for criminal records check?
There are different bodies responsible for keeping the criminal records of the people. These include district magistrate, state and the Supreme Court’s public records. Apart from this, litigation-related information can also be obtained from National Crime Research Bureau and CBI’s Most Wanted Lists. Defaulters’ list can be gathered from databases of SEBI, RBI, Registrar of Companies and Central Vigilance Committee’s list of corrupt officials.
5. How to conduct a criminal records check?
Various agencies inhibits the expertise in doing these checks and have access to all the databases. Help should be taken from such agencies. Also, it is important to inform to the concerned candidate that such a check is being carried out. It is wise to take the candidate’s written concent in the matter.
6. Can an employee be suspended based on the criminal records check?
If a candidate or a government employee has conducted any wrongdoing, he can be suspended by default if he or she has spent 48 hours or more in police custody. But the punishments in case of private companies are slightly different. Private companies have their own disciplinary committees and policies. They can decide on a course of action after reviewing each case.
7. What should you do if you discover something negative?
If, after a criminal record check, if you find any discrepancy in the candidate or an employee then you should give him or her a chance to explain. If he fails to convince the company for his wrongdoing, then the company has the right to punish him according to the punishment decided by the disciplinary committee.